“Trump TV Is Real”: Journalists React To Trump’s Facebook Live Broadcast

Written by Salvatore Colleluori

Published

Thirty minutes prior to the final presidential debate, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump advertised that he was airing a pre-debate program on Facebook Live. Given rumors that Trump’s son-in-law was shopping Trump for a TV show earlier this week, journalists noted this could be a “preview” of what could come.

On October 17, The New York Times reported that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “discussed the possibility of a Trump-branded television network with a friend,” floating the idea of setting up a “Trump television channel.” Although neither Kushner nor Trump has confirmed the report, and apparently talks have not progressed beyond informal talks, conversation around this possibility has increased as Trump's support has decreased in the polls.

A half-hour before the October 19 debate began, Trump advertised that he would be holding a Facebook Live event featuring his surrogates discussing the debate. According to Politico’s Blake Hounshell, the event was a “pregame show featuring two campaign surrogates trashing the the media coverage -- not the Republican nominee himself.” Vox’s German Lopez called it a “test-run” of Trump TV and said it was “awful.” Several other journalists noted that Trump was using this opportunity to pilot Trump TV, and the reviews were not necessarily positive:

The Daily Beast's Jackie Kucinich

[Twitter, 10/19/16]

MSNBC's Kyle Griffin

[Twitter, 10/19/16]

The Huffington Post's Christina Wilkie

[Twitter, 10/19/16]

CNN's Andrew Kaczynski 

[Twitter, 10/19/16]

BuzzFeed News' McKay Coppins

[Twitter, 10/19/16]

Politico's Kelsey M. Sutton

[Twiter, 10/19/16]